Consumer Analytics

Los Angeles – Total spending on at-home entertainment in the U.S. declined 1.4% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same time period last year, according to research by Digital Entertainment Group. Consumers spent $3.94 billion on at-home entertainment in second quarter 2013, compared to $4 billion in second quarter 2012.

Mississauga, Ontario – Rexall is launching MyRexall, a new service providing its customers with the ability to view and print their personal medication records online. In addition to viewing their medication record, MyRexall will allow customers the ability to request a refill at their local Rexall, print their medication record for review with a physician or other health care professional and easily transfer prescriptions to their local Rexall pharmacy.

Rockville, Md. -- Goodwill Industries International teamed with AT&T to launch a free “Goodwill Locations/Locator” mobile app, currently available on iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

The mobile application provides users with a tool that currently has information about more than 4,800 Goodwill donation centers and stores across the United States and Canada.

The custom app was built by AT&T's Mobility Solutions Services, using the AT&T Mobile Application Development platform.

Waban, Mass. – Amazon.com was the top-ranked company across 19 industries in the 2013 Web Experience Ratings from Temkin Group. Amazon.com had a score of 77%, almost 21 percentage points higher than the retail industry average.

Other retailers in the top 10 included eBay, tied for fifth place at 70%, and QVC, tied for eighth place at 69%. Taco Bell and Kmart earned ratings that were at least 15 points below the retail industry average. Old Navy was the only retailer to have a double-digit score increase from last year.

By John Rossman, a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal

Los Angeles – Fandango and Rue La La have both begun offering customers the option of using the V.me digital wallet service from Visa to pay at online checkout. V.me eliminates the need to enter billing, shipping and account information, and instead allows consumers to pay for a purchase by entering their user name and password.

Other e-commerce merchants that have recently started accepting V.me payments include Crutchfield, Modnique, and Sonic Electronix.

Franklin, Tenn. – More than $11.6 billion of retail IT spending, or 35% of the total, will come from budgets other than that of the CIO. Of that total “black ops” IT spend, $6.6 billion will come from the activities of the CMO and their purchases of hardware, software, SaaS, and services outside of the CIO budget.

Facebook is taking another step toward monetizing its vast audience of plugged-in consumers with the planned introduction of paid video ads. As reported in numerous media outlets, Facebook intends to launch 15-second video ads that will play in a user’s newsfeed three times per day for as much $2.5 million per spot.